


what's in a name

by greenbucket



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, F/F, Friendship, Gen, Pre-Femslash, Rivalry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:40:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25253995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenbucket/pseuds/greenbucket
Summary: It’s not like Shruti visits the café regularly, or at least not with any kind of regularity, but it’s a noted safe location in her mind. Somewhere to get a smile, a discounted hot drink, a bite to eat, and most importantly not asked too many questions after a long, tiring patrol.And never, in all of those times, has she seen another superhero sitting at the counter.
Relationships: Denice "Foxtrot" Ford/Shruti (Check Please!), Eric "Bitty" Bittle & Shruti (Check Please!)
Kudos: 17





	what's in a name

“Oh, shit,” says Shruti, freezing in the doorway.

Bitty’s has become a kind of go-to for her ever since she’d first staggered through the doorway way back when, disorientated and exhausted and very surprised to find herself very much not at the all-night pharmacy as intended. It’s not like Shruti visits the café regularly, or at least not with any kind of regularity, but it’s a noted safe location in her mind. Somewhere to get a smile, a discounted hot drink, a bite to eat, and most importantly not asked too many questions after a long, tiring patrol.

And never, in all of those times, has she seen another superhero sitting at the counter.

Figures, Shruti thinks not-at-all-bitterly. A few months off from superheroing and not only does the city as a whole fall in love with her replacement, but the café no one even knows Shruti visits on patrol isn’t safe either. The only comfort is that, the staring contest they’ve got going on and obscuring-by-cloud-or-maybe-fox-shaped superhero mask notwithstanding, Supercell looks about as awkward and annoyed as Shruti feels.

“Well, fancy both of you being here,” Bitty throws into the strained silence, over-cheerfully and a little too loud, “at my little old café at the same time and, um, place as each… other…”

Feeling merciful, Shruti steps fully inside and cuts him off. “Can I get the usual?”

She doesn’t break eye contact with Supercell though, and this time she makes sure she has her Superhero Voice on. She doesn’t need Supercell figuring out her civilian identity, somehow worming their way in there then somehow doing her civilian life better too. Or, worse, looking at Shruti’s search history from when Supercell had first popped up on her radar.

“The usual?” Bitty asks nonplussed; Shruti in fact does not have a usual. “Oh! Sure thing, of course, coming right up.”

Bitty starts clattering unconvincingly with his back to them, picking up a plate and then putting it down in the exact same place. The only benefit of this is that the sound snaps Supercell out of it and they finally look away, fiddling awkwardly with their cutlery then abruptly standing.

“I should go,” they say, and Shruti recognises another Superhero Voice when she hears one. Shruti would agree, but also doesn’t know what to say, really, because meeting a new person is still meeting a new person so long story short, she doesn’t like, _disagree_. Bitty, meanwhile, is too busy acting busy to protest before Supercell has vanished out the door.

After a moment, Shruti takes the stool next to where Supercell had been. She lets out the tension in a big whooshing sigh and avoids the look Bitty is trying to give her. When it becomes too hard to avoid that, her hunger, and the disapproving quiet, she looks up and asks, “What?”

Bitty somehow manages to make stacking cookies on a plate for her judgemental. “You know what.”

“I was here first.” It sounds about as petulant and pathetic out loud as Shruti had imagined it would, but she _was_. She’d been part of the resident superhero scene for years before Supercell just turned up, all skilled and charming, and it’s bullshit.

“You weren’t here first this evening, were you? Supercell’s been out there patrolling just as hard as you, she deserves these cookies just as much.”

Shruti bites into one of the cookies and pushes away any guilt. “Whatever. It’s been a quiet night. And she wasn’t eating cookies, unless she was with a knife and fork, which would be fucked. Anyway, Supercell’s like, way too dumb a name to deserve cookies, right?”

Bitty snorts, handing her a hot chocolate. “Okay, Supersonic–”

“Don’t.”

“– the hedgehog.”

Shruti brushes crumbs off her suit onto the floor with purpose. “Fuck off, the fans chose what they chose, I wasn’t exactly voting in their Twitter polls. Not that they choose _the hedgehog_.”

“Didn’t they?” Bitty asks, eyebrows raised. “As good as, I’d say.”

“Listen, I know what you did to get that dude to backdate your hygiene forms.”

“Oh, really!” Bitty huffs. “A little playing on a potential interest he may have had in me is hardly a crime.”

“Isn’t it?” Shruti asks, eyebrows raised. Behind the mask, but she’s sure Bitty can sense it.

“No!” Bitty insists. Then, a little shifty, “Fine, maybe ethically. Truce, okay?”

Shruti shrugs. “No promises.”

“You’re awful,” Bitty tells her, topping up her hot chocolate and adding an extra cookie from the display to her stack with a sigh.

“Something tells me you’re not totes sincere there,” says Shruti around a mouthful of cookie. Then, a little abashed at the liberties he allows her to take, she adds with some sincerity herself, “Thanks for this, Bits.” She’ll slip him some cash on the way out, no matter how much he protests; she knows she’s probably eating into his profit margins, if they exist at all.

“Don’t even mention it,” he says, serious. And then almost as seriously: “Just try and be nicer to Supercell next time, okay? Promise.”

“Next time?” Shruti groans, “Why is there going to be a next time?”

“I can’t be seen to be taking sides between our local superheroes, now can I?” Bitty replies airily. “Besides, she’s a whole lot sweeter a customer than you.”

“I used to be a sweet customer. Remember when I was apologetic? Paid the full price for your food and drink?”

“I miss that,” Bitty says in a tone that suggests the opposite. “Look, I’m not saying you’ll see Supercell again, just that maybe you should be nicer if you do.”

If she’s being objective, Shruti can understand that. There’s nothing _actually_ wrong with Supercell; it’s been nice, in fact, to have another set of hands on deck, even though they’re not a team. Things have been getting weird out there lately, and Shruti had been kind of rusty when she got back. It probably been a bit mean to (sort of) passively push a potential ally(-competitor) out of Bitty’s.

“Fine, on the off-chance we’re both here at the same time again I won’t go awkwardly silent or awkwardly rude.”

“Thank you.”

There’s a pause, where Shruti sips her drink and watches Bitty lean on his side of the counter and stare out the front windows. It’s early morning night-time on a side street, so Shruti imagines there’s not much to see. The shadows under his eyes are darker than usual and if they were actual friends Shruti might ask if he’s okay, but they’re not, so she doesn’t. Shruti just drops in from time to time in a superhero costume under a superhero name; Bitty’s is always open when she does.

If it’s not Bitty behind the counter she doesn’t come in and she enjoys their banter, so she supposes maybe they’re acquaintances, but she still doesn’t know things like if Bitty is Bitty’s actual name. It’s not a nice thought, but she struggles to imagine him outside the fluorescenty lights of the café, even though his phone pings pretty continuously with notifications. She hopes at least one of those people is keeping track of how tired he’s looking and asking if he’s okay.

No projecting going on there, of course. Shruti wouldn’t be able to answer honestly if someone _did_ ask her if she was okay anyway, so it’s fine that almost no one ever does.

“Hey, c'mon, look sharp,” she says, when she’s tired of sipping her chocolate in silence and Bitty's posture is shifting towards plain drained. “It's not my job to save you from falling asleep at the counter. Especially now I know you're cheating on me with some other super.”

Bitty blinks back into the present, rolling his eyes even as his ears turn pink. Teasing him is just too easy, sometimes. “Oh, Lord,” he starts, laying it on thick. “Well, you see, Supersonic, I wanted to bring this up at a better time, but the spark’s just gone…”


End file.
